Henry S. Foote

Henry Stuart Foote (28 February 1804-19 May 1880) was a US Senator from Mississippi (D) from 4 March 1847 to 8 January 1852 (succeeding Joseph W. Chambers and preceding Walker Brooke) and Governor from 10 January 1852 to 5 January 1854 (succeeding James Whitfield and preceding John J. Pettus).

Biography
Henry Stuart Foote was born in Fauquier County, Virginia in 1804, and he became a lawyer in 1822. In 1824, he moved to Tuscumbia, Alabama, and he helped to found the University of North Alabama before moving to Mississippi to practice law. From 1847 to 1852, he served in the US Senate, and he played a key role in securing the Compromise of 1850. During the Senate debate over the resolution, Foote's rival Thomas Hart Benton charged Foote, who drew a pistol in self-defense; other members wrestled Foote, took his gun, and locked it in a drawer, creating an uproar. He went on to serve as Governor from 1852 to 1854, and he resigned in 1854 and moved to San Francisco, California, where he joined the Know Nothings. On the eve of the American Civil War, he returned to Vicksburg, and he was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives from Tennessee. He expressed virulent anti-Semitism during his debates with Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin, and he resigned in 1865 and moved to Canada and then to London. After the war, he returned to Nashville to practice law, and he later joined the Republican Party. President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him to serve as superintendent of the New Orleans Mint from 1878 to 1880, and he died in 1880.